Former Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter-keyboardist Christine McVie will rejoin the band when they play the 20,000-seat O2 Arena London on Sept. 24, 25 and 27, Stevie Nicks tells the BBC Radio 4’s “Women’s Hour” program.

Nicks said the 70-year-old writer of such Mac hits as “Over My Head,” “Say You Love Me,” and “You Make Loving Fun” will join the band to rehearse in Ireland, where they have two gigs set this weekend in Dublin. Nicks also alluded that McVie could join the band onstage at the second Dublin concert.

McVie retired from the band and music 15 years ago, in 1998 (except for the release of a solo album in 2004 that received little notice). Nicks added that McVie is almost certain to join the band on the classic 1977 Mac 45 she also wrote, “Don’t Stop.”

Cher says “nyet” to Russian Olympics

Cher has turned down a chance to perform at the Opening Ceremony at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, located on the Black Sea, she tells Canada’s weekly news magazine Macleans. Cher cited the new Putin-endorsed Russian law that it is illegal to provide “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” to minors, hold gay pride events, support gay rights or compare gay and heterosexual relationships.

Cher says, “I can’t name names but my friend called who is a big oligarch over there, and asked me if I’d like to be an ambassador for the Olympics and open the show. I immediately said no. I want to know why all of this gay hate just exploded over there. He said the Russian people don’t feel the way the government does.”

Cher’s first album in a dozen years, “Closer to the Truth,” her 26th solo album in 48 years, since 1965, comes out Tuesday, Sept. 24. Her only scheduled performance is on Monday morning at Rockefeller Center on NBC’s “Today” show.

Kennedy Center Honors for Billy Joel, Carlos Santana & Herbie Hancock

Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock, actress-singer-dancer Shirley MacLaine and opera diva Martina Arroyo will receive Kennedy Center Honors from President Obama at a reception at the White House on Dec. 8 before being feted later that evening with performances from a an all-star roster at an event attended by President and Mrs. Obama at the Center’s 2,300-seat Opera House. The Honors will be broadcast on Dec. 29 on CBS.

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In other Santana news, the 66-year-old guitarist who took the musical world by storm with his and his band’s dazzling Latin rock performance at Woodstock in 1969 (and especially the inclusion of “Soul Sacrifice” in the Oscar-winning documentary and soundtrack triple album), got into a fender-bender in Las Vegas where he’s playing a long-term residency at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The guitarist was driving late last Friday night when he hit a parked car. It was reported that he was uninjured and damage was minimal. A spokesman for the LVPD says the 10-time Grammy winner was not driving under the influence.

One-time Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin joins Brian Wilson

South African singer-musician Blondie Chaplin was made a member of The Beach Boys in the early ’70s, playing on the band’s comeback LP’s “Carl and The Passions/So Tough” and “Holland.” He sang lead on several songs, including the hit, “Sail On, Sailor.”

While playing with a host of other recording artists since then, including Dave Mason, Joe Walsh, Bonnie Raitt and The Band, he’s best known as a backup vocalist with The Rolling Stones from 1994-2007.

The 62-year-old Chaplin will rejoin Beach Boys Brian Wilson and Al Jardine and play with original Beach Boys guitarist David Marks on Wilson’s upcoming co-headlining tour with Jeff Beck at select concerts, including opening night in Florida on September 27 as well as dates in New York City, Montclair, New Jersey, Las Vegas, Oakland, and at LA’s Greek Theatre on October 20, according to a post on his Facebook page.

Wilson is anxiously anticipating the shows with Chaplin, saying, “Blondie was one of my favorite singers in the ’70s. He blew my mind with ‘Sail on Sailor’ and he also sang on a song called ‘Funky Pretty’, on the Beach Boys’ “Holland” album. Until two weeks ago, I hadn’t seen him since 1974. It was great to see him again. He came into the studio and sang on one of my new tracks called ‘He Come Down’ and he sang it great. I’m stoked that he’ll be performing at a few of our shows.” “It’s a pleasure to sing ‘Sail on Sailor’ once again with Brian,” says Chaplin.

Elton plays special USC gig

Elton John, joined by his touring band, played a special two-and-a-half-hour concert at the intimate 1,220-seat Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California in Downtown Los Angeles that saw him really dig deep into his catalog, reports Rolling Stone.

The concert was titled, “Elton John Goes Back to School,” and was a part of the university’s Visions and Voices series. He was joined by student musicians from the USC School of Music, including string players, a brass quartet and a student choir.

With his band that includes longtime drummer Nigel Olson, who began playing with Sir Elton in 1969 and guitarist Davey Johnston, who joined in 1971, John began the gig with a couple song from his 1970 self-titled debut LP, “Sixty Years On” and “The greatest Discovery.” Other gems in the 18-song set included “Levon,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” He also showcased songs from his upcoming album, “The Diving Board” that comes out on Tuesday, Sept, 24, in a separate five-song set with the university’s Orchestra and Chamber Choir conducted by Oscar-winner and his former keyboard player, James Newton Howard.

George Harrison Day declared in Illinois

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has proclaimed Saturday, Sept. 21, George Harrison Day in the state. The Beatle spent two weeks in Benton, in southern Illinois staying with his sister Louise 50 years ago this month, just before Beatlemania turned America and the world upside down.

Quinn said of the declaration, “Many icons through history have Illinois connections, and we are recognizing one more with this proclamation. George Harrison helped define a generation, and we encourage visitors to follow his footsteps throughout Southern Illinois.”

As part of the festivities, a historical marker will be unveiled in Benton noting the visit and declaring George, “the first Beatle in America.”

Jim Kirkpatrick, author of the book he published in 2000, “Before He Was Fab, George Harrison’s First American Visit,” said, The Beatles “had really been busy.” ‘She Loves You’ was the number one song in England. Originally Ringo was planning on coming with George. She (Louise) thought since no one really knew them in America, she would try to promote them.

Of course their whole attitude was ‘we want to get away from that and go on a vacation.’ Subsequently, Ringo ended up going to Greece with Paul McCartney. Maureen went with Ringo; and Jane Asher went with Paul to Greece. John and Cynthia Lennon and Brian (Epstein) went to Paris. It was kind of just like a little break in their schedule, which was right before they did the final work in the “Meet The Beatles” album. George had just recorded his song “Don’t Bother Me” within a week of the time he came here (to Illinois).”

In The Beatles “Anthology” TV miniseries, Harrison said, “I’d been to America before, being the experienced Beatle that I was. I went to New York and St Louis in 1963, to look around, and to the countryside in Illinois, where my sister was living at the time. I went to record stores. I bought Booker T and the MGs’ first album, ‘Green Onions,’ and I bought some Bobby Bland, all kind of things.”

The Beatles Bible website notes that George and Louise hitchhiked to radio station WFRX 1300AM in West Frankfort, Illinois, with a copy of “She Loves You” that had been released in Britain a month earlier. Staffers at the station reportedly played the record.

Upcoming McCartney album, “New”

Paul McCartney’s 16th solo studio album, “New” will come out on Oct. 14 in Britain and a day later here. The 71-year-old McCartney is getting raves for the title song that will be the album’s first single. He used four producers for this effort, including the ultra-successful Mark Ronson as well as Paul Epworth, Ethan Johns and on half of the albums 12 tracks, Giles Martin, son of The Beatles producer Sir George Martin. The 43-year-old Giles Martin co-produced, remixed and rearranged with his father The Beatles songs for Cirque de Soliel’s Beatles’ production, “Love” and also produced and re-digitalized the Fab Four’s songs for the hugely successful “The Beatles: Rock Band” video game.

New Beatles album update

The release date of The Beatles latest album of unreleased material, “On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2” has been bumped back from the Oct. 4 date that was on Universal Music’s release schedule until November. The 2-CD offers 63 tracks, 40 of them songs as well as 23 spoken segments. The album is a sequel to the original collection that came out in 1994 and hit No. 1 in the UK, No. 2 in Australia and Canada and No. 3 here.

Ringo’s children’s book

A new book from Simon & Shuster, “Octopus Garden,” based on The Beatles’ song written by Ringo Starr, will be released next month and will feature an accompanying CD with a reading of the book by the 73-year-old Starr as well as a previously unreleased version of the Starr by its composer. FYI: Last year, Starr was the Richest Drummer in the World by the website CelebrityNetWorth, which placed his worth at $300 million.

Ringo and his All-Starr Band will undertake a 10-date tour of South American and Mexico from Oct. 29 – Nov. 18 before playing two gigs at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Nov. 22 and 23.

Barry White gets Walk of Fame star

Deep-voice romantic soul ballad-singing crooner Barry White, who died more of kidney failure at age 58 than a decade ago, in July 2003, received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, His widow, Gloria, attended the ceremony. The star is located at on Hollywood Blvd., across the street from the Dolby Theatre, home of the Academy Awards, and just down from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. White, who formed and led The Love Unlimited Orchestra beginning in 1973, sold more than 100 million records, logging 20 gold albums and 10 platinum singles.

Obit: Beatles pal Jackie Lomax

Jackie Lomax, a friend of The Beatles who led a couple band in Liverpool in the early ‘60s, died in his sleep at 69 his family home in the Wirral, across the Mersey River from Liverpool. Lomax, who lived in Ojai — north of Los Angeles — for many years, was there to attend the wedding of one of his children.

Lomax led Merseyside groups Dee and The Dynamites and the more popular Undertakers. Like his Beatle pals, Lomax took The Undertakers to the clubs of Hamburg where they honed their chops. He was one of first signings to The Beatles’ new Apple Records label in 1968.

Lomax’s debut 45 for Apple was George Harrison’s “Sour Milk Sea” that was written in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968 during The Beatles’ stay at the Maharishi’s compound. The other three Beatles rejected Harrison’s song for their upcoming “White Album” so he gave it to Lomax. The recording, produced by Harrison featured Paul McCartney on bass, Ringo Starr on drums, session deity Nicky Hopkins on piano and featured the dual-lead guitars of Harrison and his friend, then-guitarist for Cream, Eric Clapton.

During The Beatles’ existence, “Sour Milk Sea” was only song that three members of the group recorded together for an artist other than themselves. However, even with all that star power, the single, one of the label’s four initial releases, issued in America on the same day as “Hey Jude,” Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were the Days” (produced by McCartney) and The Black Dyke Mills Band’s “Thingumyob” (a Lennon-McCartney instrumental also produced my McCartney), bombed.

While “Sour Milk Sea” briefly hit No. 30 in Canada, it peaked at No. 117 in the US and failed to even chart in Britain. Likewise, his debut LP on Apple, “Is This What You Want?,” that included “Sour Milk Sea,” also fizzled, stopping its climb up the Billboard Top 200 album chart at only No. 145.

He left Apple and released a handful of albums and singles through the ’70s. In 1978, Lomax immigrated to America and played bass in the touring bands of ‘50s doo-wop icons The Drifters, The Coasters and The Diamonds.

In 2001, Lomax completed the recording of his first solo album since 1977, “The Ballad of Liverpool Slim.” It was his final record. In 2003, Jackie Lomax, who played club dates and attended Beatles conventions in America through the years, returned to Liverpool’s famed Cavern Club, where, like his Beatles buddies, his career began more than four decades earlier.

New Releases

Among the recently released albums, digital reissues, MP3 downloads and deluxe box sets are “Bump,” the first album from garage rock legends The Standells in more than 45 years that includes covers of Sky Saxon and The Seeds’ 1965 hit, “Pushin’ Too Hard” and Arthur Lee and Love’s bone-crushing 1966 hit, “7 and 7 Is;” a 4-CD/1-DVD box set, “Live at the Academy of Music 1971” from The Band, recorded during the final week of that year, including a New Year’s Eve gig that featured a surprise appearance by the then-super-reclusive Bob Dylan; and a 3-CD/1-DVD box, “Sunshine Daydream (Veneta, OR 8/1972)” is the benefit concert for acid author Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters communal Springfield Creamery from The Grateful Dead features a 31-minute version of “Dark Star” that has become the most-requested live bootleg in Dead history.

“Last Show” is just that, from May 28, 2012 at a festival in Holland, from the former leader of Ten Years after, guitar great Alvin Lee, who died in March at 68; “Fight For My Soul,” the seventh studio effort from guitar gunslinger Johnny Lang, a 32-year-old who has seemingly been around forever because he’s been a star since releasing his major label debut LP in 1997 when he was only 16; “Bookmarks” is the first album in four years from piano-playing rocker John Ondrasik, better known as Five for Fighting.

A 2-CD, “Live Anthology – Official Bootleg” from the early supergroup, Captain Beyond that included singer Rod Evans (Deep Purple), drummer Bobby Caldwell (Johnny Winter And…) and guitarist Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt and bassist Lee Dorman fro Iron Butterfly; “Loveless Fascination” is the first album in over 20 years from singer Mickey Thomas and Starship and was produced by Foreigner’s bassist Jeff Pilson; “Battle Maximus” is the 13th album since 1988 from satirical Virginia metal outfit, Gwar;

“I Robot (Legacy Edition” is an expanded 2-CD marking the 35th anniversary of the Top 10 multi-platinum LP; “Animal” is the first studio album since 2005 from Terri Nunn’s New Wave band Berlin; “Hoodoo” is the 24th studio album since 1968 for 70-year-old American swamp rocker Tony Joe White, whose 1968 single, “Polk Salad Annie” was a hit first for him and then recorded several times by Elvis; “Baby Beatles!” is from Presidents of the United States of America’s singer-bassist-guitarist Chris Ballew under his pseudonym Caspar Babypants, a popular singer of children’s songs, and features his charming takes on 20 Fab Four tunes, including natural kid songs like “Yellow Submarine,” “All Together Now,” “Octopus Garden,” “Love Me Do” and the John Lennon lullaby originally sung by Ringo Starr, “Goodnight.”

“Truth Serum” from 70-year-old Brooklynite Garland Jeffreys; “The Ellington Suites” is a remastered version of the Duke’s 1976 release of suites he wrote and recorded in 1959, 1971 and 1972 and that won the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band, and also a 2-CD, “The Famous Berlin Concert 1959”; “Pushing the World Away” from jazz bandleader Kenny Garrett sees him pay tribute to keyboardist Chick Corea and saxman Sonny Rollins, among others; “High Cotton: Tribute to Alabama” sees the legendary country band feted by, among others, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Mexican singer Lucero and The Old Crow Medicine Show; a reissue of troubled-yet-influential former 13thFloor Elevators leader Roky Erickson’s 1985 LP, “Gremlins Have Pictures”; and an expanded 2-CD import, “The Sands of Time,” the 1986 gold record from disco act, The S.O.S. Band.

Steve Smith writes a new Classic Pop, Rock and Country Music News column every week. Like, recommend or share the column on Facebook. Contact him by email at Classicpopmusicnews@gmail.com.